[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 66 (Friday, May 13, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




A TRIBUTE IN HONOR OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH AND THE HEP 
                            B FREE CAMPAIGN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 13, 2011

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Asian Pacific 
American Heritage Month and a particular effort to benefit the Asian 
Pacific American (APA) community, the Hep B Free Campaign. This is a 
month to acknowledge and celebrate the APA community's vital economic, 
cultural, academic, and political contributions to our diverse and 
dynamic country. I'm proud to join more than 150,000 of my APA 
constituents in California's 14th Congressional District, whose work 
enriches our lives every day.
  As we acknowledge the extraordinary impact of the APA community, this 
is also a time to address a more sobering impact on the APA community, 
the grave health threat of Hepatitis B. Hepatitis B is the greatest 
cause of liver cancer in the world, resulting in up to 80 percent of 
all liver cancer, three hundred and fifty to four hundred million 
people in the world are chronically infected with Hepatitis B, which 
takes a life every 30 seconds. Most of them are Asian. One in ten 
foreign-born Asian Americans are chronically infected with Hepatitis B, 
100 times the infection rate of the general population. Without 
treatment, 1 in 4 will die from liver cancer or liver failure, often in 
their prime adult years. In California alone, liver cancer is among the 
leading causes of cancer deaths among Laotians, Cambodians, Vietnamese, 
Chinese, Korean, and Filipinos. Nearly 10 percent of the Asian 
population in my District is chronically infected, and nearly half have 
not been vaccinated to protect them from infection.
  Given the gravity of this health challenge, I'm proud to recognize 
the outstanding work of the Hep B Free Campaign which promotes public 
and provider awareness, including programs for screening, vaccination, 
and linkage to follow-up treatment.
  Hep B Free was originally started by Asian Week Foundation, a 
community-based non-profit that celebrates the diversity of Asian 
Pacific America through identity assemblage, with special expertise in 
bringing together the multiplicity of groups and personality that make 
up our community; Stanford University's Asian Liver Center, the only 
non-profit organization in the country addressing this pressing public 
health disparity; and the San Francisco Department of Public Health 
because they recognized the egregious health disparity experienced by 
APA in terms of Hepatitis B. I'm proud this campaign began in San 
Francisco, continued in San Mateo County and has now launched its 
campaign in Santa Clara County with the additional support of Asian 
Americans for Community Involvement and the Santa Clara County Public 
Health Department. I look forward to supporting Hep B Free as they 
expand their efforts to the rest of the country. As Assemblywoman Fiona 
Ma, Majority Whip of the California Assembly and Honorary Chairperson 
of the Hep B Free Campaign, said, ``We can set a model for the nation 
and be an inspiration to efforts around the globe in eradicating Hep 
B.''
  We celebrate APA Heritage Month just a month after the death of Dr. 
Baruch Blumberg, a brilliant and compassionate scientist whose 
discovery of the Hepatitis B virus and creation of the vaccine won him 
a Nobel Prize and the gratitude of all whose lives are affected by the 
disease. The Hep B vaccine is known as the first anti-cancer vaccine 
because it is so effective at preventing Hep B infection and the liver 
cancer that could develop.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Asian Pacific 
American Heritage Month and the Hep B Free Campaign's extraordinary 
efforts to ensure that the millions of Asian Pacific Americans who 
strengthen our Nation can live long and healthy lives.

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